Urdu is written in the opposite direction to English i.e. from right to left.
It is an easy language to write fast in because it has a built in shorthand ! It is very important to read each line slowly and study each part of a figure closely the first time, and then re-read it carefully again to make the whole learning experience easy.

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This is the most important lesson so do it very slowly and carefully and the rest of the 20 or so lessons will then seem very easy.
Each sound is represented by a letter. For example lets look at the letter K and N in the next figure.

Each letter is written in a slightly different form depending on whether it comes in the beginning , middle or end of a word or whether it occurs on its own ie in a detached form .

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If for example you look at the figure below, K on its own is on your extreme right marked detached . If it occurs in the beginning of a word as in the word Kill it is written as in the next one along i.e. its initial form marked 2. If it occurs in the middle of a word e.g. lucKy it is written in the medial form 3 and if it occurs at the end of the word as in ducK it is like the 4th final form to your extreme left.

The above figure has the detached, initial medial and final forms of K and N.

You may have noted that the detached and final form are usually very similar.

Note again that the detached form is on your extreme right then the initial, medial and final.

*

Supposing we wanted to make say a meaningless two letter word with a starting ( initial) letter K and ending with N .

We would take the intial form of K marked 2 in the figure above and the final form of N marked 4 and join them together. Remember to read it R to L.

Courtesy
Ukinda.com

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Last edited by askari.z55 on Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:19 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Lesson#2: Vowel Marks

Let's add some accent and vowel marks in between the letter K and N.

Reading from the right of the screen the second word is k'n with the k pronounced a little longer since the accent mark (zabar) is over the k .

The next word kn' has a longer n since the accent mark is over the n. The shapes of the vowels aa, i, ee, u, oo, o, au, ae and aae are obvious from the figure and are explained in more detail after the figure.

Let's take our meaningless word kn and add vowel marks to it. The left word in the next figure reads kAAn (meaning ear in English). The AA is a vertical straight line. A vowel is not joined to the letter following it so the letter n in kaan is written in its detached form. Note also the slight change in the shape of K .

To make kin (as in kith and kin) we put a small slanting mark called "ZER" below the letter K.

This vowel mark is often left out in newspapers so when you see kn.

You may have to read it as:

To write the word kEEn we add two dots to the slanting "zer" mark:

To make the sound u as in kUmar a "PESH" mark is put over the letter as in this word kUn:

To make the long OO as cOOl another fat worm like mark is put after the letter as well as the "pesh" above it as in this word kOOn.

For the mark O as in cOne the worm like mark is on its own without the "pesh":

To make the AU sound as in AUtumn the "ZABAR" mark is put above the O . The next figure reads as kAUn (who?)

For the AE sound as in cAEn (cane) we write just two dots below the letter:

To make the AAE sound we add a slanting "zabar" above the AE mark:

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:30 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Here is the deal:

Note the difference between kEEn and kAEn (cane):

And between kEEn and cAAEn:

And between kUn and kAUn:

And between kOOn and kAUn:

*

This is a very important area so make sure you get them all right . There is revision of the vowel marks in the figure below. Note however there is a new accent mark called a zabar above the kn word second from your right. It signifies that the accent should be on k so making and not on n in this word here - so it should sound kughn and not knugh. This will become clearer later. Continuing , the third word from R to L on the top line is the word kaan (ear) . The vowel mark AA is a straight vertical line put after K .Note the K changing shape slightly in the figure for KAAN. A vowel mark like AA is not attached to the letter which follows after it, so N here is written on its own.

*

The vowel mark AA as we noted above is written as a straight vertical line. The next word to it on your left is kin . The vowel mark little "i" is a small slant line called in urdu ZER is placed BELOW the letter, in this case K. The next word on the second line is KEEN. Two dots are added to the little "i" - ZER - mark to make a big EE mark below the letter.

Then little u - KUN as in the word crook - the u mark -called PESH - is always above the letter ; next is big U -KOON as in sOOn - note you get a big fat worm like figure added to the little u-pesh- mark but this worm is on level with the letter.

*

Next in the figure here:

O is as in "cone" (icecream cone) - the worm on its own makes an O sound ; but when a zabar is added above the letter it makes an Au - KAUN who in Urdu) as in AUtumn. Note the difference between the words KOON and KAUN in the bigger figure above. kOOn has a pesh on top of the worm while kAUn has a zabar on top of the worm.

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Next below is ae as in cane (sugar) with two dots below. See if you can spot the difference between the word Cane below and the word KEEN above. Thats right! Rhe only difference between an AE vowel mark and an EE one is that EE has an extra zabar in addition to the two dots.This is important to remember.

Look again at CANE with the two dots marking the AE sound and the next figure to it CAN . We get the AAE sound in cAAEnada (Canada) by just adding a zabar at the top of the letter.

*

Just go over the vowel marks again. Spend a lot of time sudying the figure below and get up and get it imprinted on your mind. It is extremely important to get the vowel marks right. After finishing these introductory lessons red some children's study books. The reason is that newspapers tend to leave out the small vowel marks of little "i" and little "u" and tend to put one word on top of another and you will get very confused unless you are confident of your vowels.

The following are the vowel marks which modify the letters.

You might not be familair with some of these. Such as the Madd, Hamza and Tashdid. Because these are all special characters which we will look at in the next lesson.

*

Next Up: Some delicious Urdudish tidbits and a very simple and easy-to-do test to check your knowledge about Vowel Marks.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:34 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Testing Your Urdu Skills So Far

Fast Fact: Sometimes the letter N when it is the final letter is written without the dot in the middle and is not sounded except from the back of the throat as example in the word Maa'n for mother. (We shall look at that in detail later on).

Point to Remember: One important point to note is that the "Zabar" mark and tue i mark called a "Zer" are similar but the Zabar is on top of a letter while Zer which signifies i is below.

.....And her comes you eagerly awaited test.....

The Test

What to do: I will provide you with an Image from Ukinda.com and you will have to write the correct pronunciation of each word next to it. And you can even print the image to do this properly. That would be so much fun.

This test is extremely easy and you should have absolutely no problem doing it. If you do have a problem, simply go over the previous lessons again and then try to take this test. Repeat if necessary. (Which I hope you wont have to  Learning Urdu is pretty easy if youre determined enough).

Done?

If you have done it, read on.

Warning: If you havent done it yet do not read on because Im putting up the answers next.  And if youre thinking of cheating, NO cheating allowed. Absolutely not.

Now for all those who have done your test without having a peek below *pets* it is time to see how much you scored. Your solved test should match this:

It doesnt? Not to worry dears. Just go over the previous lessons again and have another go.

Here is the grading scheme: There are a total of 11 words in the image given. The grades are going to be given according to how many pronunciations you got right. Fewer than 5  Give it another go. 5+  Good. 7+  Exceeds Expectations. 10+  Outstanding.

Which grade did you get? I would love to know. So if you really want to tell feel free to PM me or mail me [senoritamaxie@hotmail.com] but do not post your score here please.

Next up: Lesson#3: Vowel at the Beginning of a Sentence  so mind you keep an eye out for it.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:36 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Lesson#3: Vowel at the Beginning of a Sentence

If a word begins with a vowel e.gfor instance. arm, apple, Easter etc. an "Aliph" sign is always put before the Vowel mark.

Examples below. Note that the first word is "a" or "ugh" as in 'U'nder.

Note there are two ae letters. The bottom is used when ae is on its eg Ae cat sat while the one above it is used when AE joins the next letter eg in AEK (one).

*

If the vowel is not at the start of a word we dont use the vertical aliph and just use the vowel marks as below. Make sure you can tell the difference between ae and big eee ( there is an extra zer at the bottom for eee). Between u and big ooo and between ooo and au ( au has a zabar on top ). It is important to get up and cram these vowel marks as they make the language very easy to read once you have done that.

*As in Hindi the nasal n as in the word song is marked with a dot over the letter.*

*

After Aliph the next letters in the alphabet are B, P, Te (soft as in tota-parrot), T, and S - All written from your Right to Left. These letters are pronounced as Be (bay), Pe, Te, Te and Se.

The S above can be confused with SH which we shall see later, so look at it closely.

*

Its quite easy to guess the four forms of each letter depending on whether it is detached (to your right ), comes at the beginning (second right on your screen), middle - 3rd from the Right - or final (leftmost).

Looking at the above figure and keeping the sign of the aa vowel ( just a vertical line), and keeping in mind where the letter comes in the word, can you read your first sentence in Urdu? It has a final form of the i which you have not met before ( in the word KI below). Also note the little omega sign - called TASHDID - at the top of B in ABBA. It is a double ie and means you have to say B twice, the first B is half pronounced. Read R to L.

Do you know what the above - Aap ke Abba ki Kitab - means ? It says this book belongs to your father. Abba is Urdu for father. Aap means you and kitab is book. Note also that the two dots for the soft te in Kitab are placed well above the line.

*

Next Up: Your Test for this Lesson.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:40 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Testing Your Urdu Skills So Far

What to do: I will provide you with an Image and you will have to write the correct pronunciation of each word next to it. That will show whether you can read them or not. S I in the last test, you canprint the image to do this properly. That would be so much fun.

This test is extremely easy and you should have absolutely no problem doing it. If you do have a problem, simply go over the previous lessons again and then try to take this test. Repeat if necessary. (Which I hope you wont have to  Learning Urdu is pretty easy if youre determined enough).

Done?

If you have done it, read on.

Warning: If you havent done it yet do not read on because Im putting up the answers next.  And if youre thinking of cheating, NO cheating allowed. Absolutely not.

Now for all those who have done your test without having a peek below *pets* it is time to see how much you scored. Your solved test should match this:

(The unlabelled figure is of course the English word TENT).

It doesnt? Not to worry dears. Just go over the previous lessons again and have another go.

Here is the grading scheme: There are a total of 4 words in the image given. The grades are going to be given according to how many pronunciations you got right. Fewer than 2  Give it another go. 2+  Exceeds Expectations. 4 Outstanding.

Which grade did you get? I would love to know. So if you really want to tell feel free to PM me or mail me [senoritamaxie@hotmail.com] but do not post your score here please.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:41 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Lets look at the vowels and the words learnt so far and introduce a new letter M

Can you by looking at the figure above identify the following words in the next figure ? They consist of Urdu words in the first line and English in the next one.

The answers are Pakistan ( this is a different form of S - a new letter will be introduced in the figures sometimes before without prewarning and you have to make a best guess what it might sound like - its a good practice to get into as often some of vowel marks are not written and one has to occasionally guess in reading normal Urdu ) . The words are Mama and Neem on the first line. The second line has mint , no , potato and the final line has name and then mine. Note the hamza - a little one put over a vowel when one vowel follows another as here in the word MINE the vowel AA is followed by EE.
. Other points to note are that the intial B or P has a short vertical rather than horizontal line when it has a vowel with it as in the word NO above and that the letter S often has an elongated shape as in the word Pakistan . Note also that the mark over the t in potato converts it into a hard T as in Turkey.

It seems that the first soldiers who got to the subcontinent did not speak the Queen's English . So that the word CALL ( to call ) somebody is ususally written and pronounced as CAAL rather than CAUL by Urdu speakers. Also there is a tendency to add an I at the beginning whenever an English word is written with Urdu script , so the word SPIRIT for eg. is written and pronounced as ISPIRIT , school is written as ischool etc. Here however we will try and stick close to the English pronounciation.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:44 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Lets look at another three vowels in the figure below from R to L which complete the vowels used in Urdu
They are another form of A which we shall from now mark as little a to distinguish from Aliph.
Long EE also used as Y as we shall see.
Long Ae
Then is the letter H and finally L.

a is pronounce as AEN ( as in mAn) . The next is the letter Y . Because it has two dots at the bottom it can easily be confused with the vowel mark ae .Third is the long Ae . Next on the left are the two useful consonants H and L .

These are the four forms of each letter .

Note that the medial form of a has a closed loop on top.Note L initial or medial can be confused with alif and the L final with the undotted N. If we look at the letters above we can form some new words with these and the previous letters. Try and read the words below . Each line is a mxture of English and urdu words. The answers come afterwards. There are examples of the inital , medial and final forms of each letter as far as possible.

.

Lets make some words using the above . Have a go at reading them.

Here are the answers.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:46 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

There is a special form of H marked as " special H " in the figure below which is sounded with the letter and gives it a deeper more resonant sound .
For example K as in the word King becomes KH as in KHan .
B as in Bat becomes BH as in BHai (brother) .
P as in Peter changes to PH as in PHil and we will meet more in the lessons to follow.
The next figure has all Urdu words since these aspirated consonants do not occur in English. Line 1 has the common form of H-you have seen before- in the middle of each of the two words -can you read the words ?
Line 2 has the special form of H marked Special H and the words are explained in the figure after the one below.

Here are the answers.

Note some important points. In the word Naheen you might easily miss the zer and read the two dots as ae-sometimes you have to hunt for the vowel marks!
Note the hamza in BYE and BHAEE to signify that one vowel follows another immediately.
Note also the word KHAEL - it is easy to misread the two dots as Y instead of AE.
Note also that the final L has a longer vertical stem to distinguish it from the final undotted nasal N.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:48 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Remember that you can download all language lessons in less than five minutes by clicking on the lang.zip file and then opening it with winzip or pkunzip in a directory.The zip file is updated about every two weeks.
Next lets look at the second line of the Urdu alphabet. These letters are J , Ch , H and Kh -read as Jeem , Cheem , Hae and Khae.

See if you can read the follwing words . It is not important that you get them right the first time but you should be able to reread them easily. Masculine words end with Aa eg
Dada ( grandfather) while feminine words end with i - Dadi (grandmother). Another example is
Chacha (uncle) and Chachi ( Aunt). In the figure below the first line has English words. The second and third one have one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and Urdu words.

Here are the answers
.

Revise your vowel marks to see if you agree with the answers above. Note the sound doubler in Bachcha - on Line 3.

The special H can be used for J and Ch to give the deeper JH and CHH sounds as for example in the Udu words Jhanda -flag and Chhatri - Umbrella. In the figure below see if you can read the words in Urdu on the second line and the sentence on the third line.

Here is the answer.

Note that the N in the word mother ( Maa'n)is a nasal N and is not pronounced except from the back of the throat- the tongue stays down flat. That is why it is marked with an apostrophe. The N in the word Maan is pronounced with the tongue on the teeth and has the dot in it.

It is better to start reading childrens books and build up a vocabulary before reading Urdu newspapers. The reason is that often there are no spaces between the words in the newspapers. It is not necessary for experienced readers as they can tell instantly from the final form of a letter where the word ends but the lack of space before the next word can be very confusing for beginners. Another reason is that sometimes the space below a letter gets crowded and often a vowel mark will be left out and that can make it very difficult to read the words as well.

Remember to reread all the previous lessons before moving on to the new one. It should take no more than fifteen minutes each time and you will find the learning experience a lot smoother .

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:53 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Most lessons are corrected and then reposted. So even if you have read them once it is a good idea to reread them anew each week.

Before going on to the next line of the Urdu alphabet lets just recap all the letters learned so far . The inital , medial and final forms of a typical example of each line is oultined. See if you can spot a new letter that you have not met so far.

and

Here are the answers

The new letter is of course G.

Remember H , Y and E.

and the vowel marks

and a vowel mark on its own at the beginning.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:56 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

The next line of the alphabet has the letters soft d ( THE ) , D and Z. called dhal , dal and zal

The figure below shows the inital , medial and final forms of THE , D , Z
.

What are the following English words?.

Here are the answers

The Vowel mark O is also used as the letter V or W as in the word DWA below . Note that the mark over the A to signify a long AA is ometimes ommited.See if you can spot the word DWA and read the other Urdu words.

Here are the answers .

The next line has similar looking letters to the above and are called R, DE ( pronouced by curling the tongue right back behind that for the letter d and then bringing it forward as in D. Example the words ladki (girl) , and two more Zs .

Here are all the forms of the letters

As you will see from above Urdu has borrowed many letters from Persian and Arabic and so there are multiple letters for the same sounds such as
Z , H , S , KH etc.

Can you read the following English sentences ?

here are the answers

These are the letters learned in this lesson . Reading from your Right to Left.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:00 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

This lesson has just Urdu words as the letters have no equivalent English sounds.
The one to your most right is the letter THE as in the word That. Then the letter D same as in English Drum . Next is a tricky one DE - put the tongue on the palate as if to say D , then roll it back further and unroll it rapidly without touching the palate. The special H makes an aspirated sound as in the words outlined below . See if you can read them

Here are the answers.

Note that 2.DHOOD and 1. DHOD are pronounced the same although technicaly the later is not correct. This is a problem for beginners as vowel marks like the pesh mark in 2 are often left out.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:01 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

The next set of letters are the S's . The figure below has the letters S , Sh , S again and Z pronounced as Seen , Sheen , Svad and Zvad.

In the above note that the first two are the most commonly used letter forms for S and Sh in Urdu. Svad and Zvad the bottom two are borrowed from the Persian .Read the following words.The last line has Urdu words.

Ignore the problems of scale . They will be corrected at a later date. They may not be written as in an Urdu dictionary because the pesh mark often (eg in the word for soap) gets left out. Also usually left out is the zabar or accent mark ( except in the word must below) since it is assumed that all English speakers know where to put the accent. Often the accent zabar mark is left out anyway.

Here are the answers

Read the following English sentences . Note the Z and S letters have been used liberally and this may not be the form you may find in the dictionaries.

Here are the answers

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:03 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

The next two letters are another form of the soft t and another z. They are called T'o and Zo .

The t' sound is produced by protruding the tip of the tongue just beyond the upper teeth and letting the front third touch the bottom of the top teeth.The bottom teeth are also very close to the top teeth. Z is the same as other Zs.

Read the following

Here are the answers

Related to the above sounds are TH as in Thanks or in the word marked A below (thin)-note the two dots over the letter , and another mark is added to TH to convert it to TTH ( tongue touches the top of the mouth in between the positions for T and D) as in the word ttheek (correct) , the dots are lost.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lets look at two more letters. The first is another form of A called Aaen and the second with the dot on top is another form of G called Gaaen.
.

The first Aaen is pronounced as an ugh followed by aa for eg the word to forgive maaf is really pronounce as m-ugh-aa-f

Try and read the following Urdu words.

Here are the answers

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:06 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

The next line of the Urdu alphabet contains the letters F pronounced as Fe and Q sounded as Quaf . The four forms of these letters are as follows

Read the following sentences where all the four forms of each of these letters is used .
Line A below has English words while line B is made of Urdu words . Note again that the zer mark may be missing in for example the word for love when reading Urdu papers.Note also that in the word LIFE the F is slightly modified with a small vertical stem initally

The answers are

Note that in the word for Aq -stubborn - the letter A being a vowel does not join the Q. If it did it would be read as L which has the same form as A

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:08 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

In the figure below we have the letters K , G ,and L . As we have already met them before only the way they are written is outlined below. Remember to start at the tail end of the arrow and follow the direction.

The next letters are M and N . Note that the nasal N , marked n' as in the urdu word for mother -maan' loses the dot in the middle.

In the figure above the letter for v , also serves as an O.

See if you can read the two English and one Urdu sentences below .

Answers are

Technically the O should be distinguished from the V by the fact that O should have a vowel mark over it as in the word LAaO . However this rule is not always followed.

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:10 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

Now we come to the final letters in the Urdu alphabet .

H we have met before. Remember the special form which modifies the letters B, P , T'-soft t , T , J , CH , THE and D as in the examples below. In each case the letter being modified is written above the word. The special H makes B into a deeper BH , P into PH as in pharmacy etc.

Read the Urdu sentence below . It shows how H can be used in the intial , medial and final forms.

Answer

Y is written like an H but with two dots below the letter.

Here is how it used in its three forms.

Answer

Here is how the final letters big E - EE and big A - Ae can be used

Answer

_________________"O son of Adam if you have collected anything in excess of your actual need you will act only as its trustee for someone else to use it.""(Imam Ali(a.s))"

Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:13 pm

askari.z55Senior Proud Pakistani

Joined: 15 Nov 2007Posts: 1730Location: UAE

These lessons contains a couple of hundreds of Urdu vocabulary. It is most important to recognise the final form of letters as otherwise it can be extremely difficult to know where a word ends and another begins , so revise lesson 14 before starting this one.
The first column reading as in English has the English word followed by its Urdu translation.
Have a guess at the answers and then check your answer after the figure.
The first few figures are done for you.

Many of the accent marks are left out as they tend to clutter up the figure and you know where to lay the accent in English words anyway . Some words do have them left in as examples.
If you see a zabar- a short slanting line- on its own at the top or also what looks like an arrow head pointing up , these are accent marks. This will become clearer when you read the figures.
Note that the zer -little i-slanting line mark below the letter which makes the two dots of an ae vowel into a big EE- may be some distance from the two dots.

The next figure has the English words -for this lesson we will read as in English your left to your right - Crocodile , Donkey , Cow on the first line and Fox , Seal and Giraffe on the second. Notice that the vowels are written in small case.

In the figure below make sure you know the vowels correctly. the words are elephant , lion , bear , rhinosaurus , mongoose and alligator . That is an accent mark over the M in mongoose.